Steve Fitzgerald wrote:
In message
,
Mizter T writes

The T4 trains will actually display T4 & 123 as a destination;
the T5 trains will show T123 & 5 as a destination.

So for people heading to T123 in a hurry, and the first train is
to T4 & 123, perhaps the best strategy is to board it anyway and
then lean out of the carriage at Hatton Cross to see if the
platform departure indicator (assuming that there is one) shows a
T123 & 5 train less than (say) eight minutes behind.

PaulO

I'm not sure there is a "train describer" (in endearing LU lingo)
at Hatton Cross - but if there isn't one, there needs to be!

There is now - it went in a month or two ago when the signalling
work was being done for T5.

Last Thursday it was showing "Check front of train" for all trains,
which wasn't much use, especially if, as someone said earlier, even the
T4 trains say HEATHROW T1,2,3 on the front. Is that true? If so, it's
typical of the shambles that LU have made of the Heathrow change.

Last week, none of the line diagrams in the trains or on the platforms
had been changed, so they all showed Hatton Cross - T4 - T123 in a
straight line, highly misleading for T4 passengers.

There were some posters in Piccadilly Line ticket halls saying vaguely
that there were some changes in the Heathrow area, and that people
should listen for announcements at Hounslow West and Hatton Cross.
These posters would not be seen by people joining the Picc from another
line.

The arrangement was quite well covered by the auto-announcer on the
trains. After leaving Hounslow West, it said that T4 passengers should
change at the next station, Hatton Cross, and wait for a train to T4.
This is sensible as it gives passengers a couple of minutes' notice that
they have to collect their baggage and leave the train. But this plan
was scuppered by the station assistant on the platform at Hounslow West
announcing that "this train will not call at Terminal 4. Passengers for
Terminal 4 should alight here ..." So all the T4 passengers are told
this without any notice, having been kept in ignorance until then and
lied to by the line diagrams.

I spoke to the SA at Hounslow West, who was reluctantly acting under
instructions but thought it was daft. He had been told to make the
announcement if the driver didn't. And he even had a sheet on which he
had to record which train drivers didn't make an announcement. This is
crazy, as the auto-announcer is set to make the announcement AFTER
leaving Hounslow West.

I haven't got round to complaining to LU, having been distracted by
events above ground at Heathrow that day. Is all the above still true?

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)